The Case Against a Mid-Engined Corvette

They say it's really going to happen: my friend Chris Doane used his massive telephoto Canon lens, nicknamed "The Stanley Cup" by his friends, to catch what looks a lot like an engineering mule for a mid-engined Corvette. Either that, or there's going to be a mid-engined Holden Ute with no available space in the bed coming to Australia real soon. Supposedly this is going to be called the "Zora" or the "ZR1" or, predictably, the "ZR1 Zora" and it will go on sale at the end of 2017 alongside the current C7-generation 'Vette.

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If that's truly the case—if the first production Corvette to locate its engine behind the driver is just a limited-production, megabuck special—then I suppose I have no real beef with the idea. If, on the other hand, they're proposing to replace the traditional Stingray with a mid-mounter, then that's totally freaking crazy and we all need to take the strongest possible action before it's too late.

I'm talking angry emails. I'm talking actual hand-written letters sent in an envelope. If we have to, we can try skywriting. Or we can all join hands outside the Bowling Green factory and refuse to let them move the tooling in. Doesn't matter what it takes. It must be done. The idea of making the standard Corvette a mid-engined automobile is a terrible one, and it must be stopped. By any means necessary.

If they're proposing to replace the traditional Stingray with a mid-mounter, that's totally freaking crazy

I'll explain.

On the surface, the idea of a mid-engined Corvette seems like one whose time has long since arrived. The arrival of the C4 Vette thirty-three years ago was an explicit warning to the international community that the marque's days as a coke-bottle-shaped Boogie Nights cruiser were over and done for. The cars that followed hammered that message home with authority. By the time the C6 ZR1 set the unofficial Nurburgring production-car record, the Corvette had sailed right past any notions of performance-per-dollar right into authentic supercar-bully status.

In 2016, the Vette is expected to scrap it out on an equal basis with everything from Porsches to McLarens, particularly in terms of lap time. As a consequence, the C7 has an engine mounted as far back toward the firewall as possible and a transaxle layout to get the weight of the transmission behind the driver. Unfortunately, that still doesn't address the car's fundamental inertia issues. Think of the Corvette as an ice skater spinning with her arms all the way out, and a Ferrari 488 as that same ice skater with her arms drawn to her body. Which one spins faster with the same amount of momentum? That's what happens when you concentrate the weight in the middle of the car.

A mid-engined Corvette would post faster laptimes even if nothing else about the car, from the engine to the tires, were to change. This is particularly important given the considerable difficulty GM would face extracting significant additional power from the LS-series V8, which is already supercharged in the Z06. It would also afford the "Zora" a not inconsiderable amount of additional prestige among potential supercar buyers, if anybody at Chevrolet cares.

Chevrolet

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So it's a great idea, right? Not so fast. To begin with, engineering a reliable mid-engined car is hard. Do you disagree? Well, name somebody who's done it. I'll wait. . . Even Toyota faced a few mechanical issues with its third-generation MR2, and if Toyota can't make a car reliable after designing it three times in a row, something's wrong. The last mid-engined GM car I can remember is the Pontiac Fiero. Some of those caught on fire for no reason. (Others were really nice, though.)

To make matters worse, the current front-engined Corvette has been displaying some temperamental behavior in customer hands, particularly with that supercharger bolted on. This is unlikely to improve with the engine tucked safely out of the way of any possible airflow. It's also hard to make room for a big motor back there. Don't forget that a lot of people want their Vettes with a canvas top, too; that's an additional challenge for mid-engined packaging.

Speaking of customer requirements, it's worth noting that Corvettes are also held to a higher standard than traditional supercars in areas as diverse as winter driveability and ease of spark-plug replacement. The customer base expects to put 100,000 miles on the things without so much as a single engine-out major belt service. They're supposed to be affordable to purchase and affordable to service and easy to sell. Combine that with the expected performance, and you're basically asking the Corvette to be the best mid-engined car in history by a margin that borders on the interstellar.

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If all of that sounds unfair—who cares how much time it takes to change the spark plugs in a LaFerrari? Who even knows?—then you're starting to understand one of the major reasons that the Corvette is so special and so unique among performance cars. In order to be worthy of the Corvette legacy, a mid-engined C8 would have to bend the laws of physics, manufacturing, and economics all at once. I remind you: the last mid-engined car from General Motors was the Fiero.

I remind you: the last mid-engined car from General Motors was the Fiero.

Don't get me wrong: I'd like to see 'em do it. I'd like to see a reasonably-priced mid-engine 'Vette that laps like a McLaren and lasts like a Land Cruiser. I would buy such a car, were it to exist. I'd also like to be able to buy a brand-new general-aviation six-seater for $59,999, a prospect that seems equally unlikely. But I don't want to buy either one of them until the initial bugs are worked out. If you're willing to be a beta tester for a mid-engined Corvette, you should tell your local Chevy dealer. But be warned: there might be problems that you won't need a Stanley-Cup-sized lens to see.

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